Mother in Singsing!

In the end of February it was time for the first family visit from my side and in swooped my mother! It was her first time in Singapore, but considering she had been visiting in Tokyo last year, it was the second time in Asia. 

Throughout there were a lot of comparisons in between both cities, where we came to the conclusion that Tokyo is cooler, but Singapore is easier to live in. Despite the heat.. Mother Ingrid came from around -20 C in relatively dry air to about +35 C with humidity of more than 90% DP.

One of the pit stops was of course Raffles Hotel's Long Bar to have the obligatory Singapore Sling and throw peanuts on the floor

 We then took the elevator up 62 floors i. e. 282 m and walked the last two floors to the sky bar  1-Altitude, to get the best view over our new city

 

Dinner was hence grilled tiger shrimps, which you eat whole, head and all; the Swedish mother was slightly suspicious at first ;)

Another dinner was had at Chomp Chomp amongst others comprised by grilled slip lobsters (which you do not eat with their shells..)

 There were also a few long days at Orchard Road, shopping away like crazy..

 ..where one was finished off making green muscles in white wine and cream with a lot of garlic, of course eaten on the balcony, with a lot of wine!

Pictures had to be taken in for instance Chinatown.. 

 ..but when we hit Sago Lane and it started raining..

..we decided to go into the Buddha Tooth-Relic Temple..

 ..where a huge group of female monks were having some sort of meeting..

..in an absolutely breath taking surrounding..

 ..with marvelous figures..

 ..representing things like our star signs..

..and protective 'saints'

 Another must while visiting Singsing is of course the Botanic Gardens with absolutely huge trees.. 

 ..orchid photo spots..

..and often very, very hot weather (mother on the verge of giving up, with the mandatory sweat towel and water bottle)

Besides beautiful flowers, there are also quite amazing palm trees (mother however found and was carefully watching a big lizard)..

..while one of the cold climate orchids became our favorite..

 ..along with these cylinder like kind that almost looked like cheese doodles

 Then I found the smallest orchid I've ever seen!

The last orchid we looked at was on a tree branch and looked like a Swedish forest flower (vitsippa) 

We of course had to swing by Little India and especially Mustafa Center. Since I'd by then been housewifing (it's a new word btw) quite a bit, I know well to stay away from there in the morning (pensioner-race-time including old women apparently having the right to hit anyone junior with their sticks) and later afternoon (Indian house wife time with their Filipino maids completely take over and crowded beyond belief). Therefore, getting the requested Indian princess dress for the bonus grandchild at home, needed to be sorted out mid day = no walking outside (or it basically looks like you had a shower in your own sweat)

We hence continued to the food section, where we found things we hadn't seen before..

 ..things we had seen before ('which ketchup/chili sauce do I choose?')..

..but maybe not in quantities that we had seen before ('or do I take something from the other side??')

The evening was finished off at Greenwood Bistro and their traditional Oyster Night, when each oyster goes for S$1; it was the first time in about 30 years my mother had alive, raw oysters and she loved it

The marina needed to gets its part of the attention (this is mother and husband; wanted at least one pic proof we were at Marina Bay Sands, with the Singapore Flyer in the background; I'm so turning Asian..)

We came down from the sky bar Ku De Ta on the 53rd floor just in time to catch the light show below the casino..

..as we made our way towards The Sail and the other scrapers in the finance district..

..and ended up at Level 33 on floor 33, which is apparently the only microbrewery on that height  in the world

We also managed to squeeze in some Indian food at our favorite local Banana Leaf (I can't for the world tell you what we had, because I have absolutely no idea when we go there, but it's very good)..

.. where the food was really nice, but slightly spicy

 One of the final meals was had at Chinese Gardens, which is unfortunately located in Clarke Quay (it's not as bad on the tacky-ness-scale as Sentosa, but not far off), but is worth a visit for their food 

Tack fina mamma for ett jatteharligt besok och vi ser fram emot nasta! Pok/Ka

More from February

In the end of February we made a huge change for us, but maybe quite uninteresting for others. We decided to start eating according to Low Carb High Fat (LCHF, http://www.dietdoctor.com/lchf). However, I wanted to have a post about it, since it's made such a difference in our lives, i. e. made us more than 20 kg lighter in only a few months. It does sound crazy, but not only do you get very full, you're also specifically eating the nice stuff. I mean, who wants to have potatoes really? Or how much fun is rice? Or just bread? It's always the things to all of the latter that you want to have, right? So now we are having them. And it's smashing ;)

We started the first day with cheese omelet

Then it was smoked duck, asparagus and grilled muscles for lunch

 And finally sashimi as starter..

 

 ..steak, sauteed forest mushroom cream sauce with rib eye steak as main..

 ..and full fat yoghourt 'panna cotta' with raspberry sauce as dessert 

 The next day it was drunken duck, braised beef in ginger and chicken porridge

Although the main parts of an LCHF diet is proteins and fat, I still strictly refrain from intestines; lol, if it's not a raw chicken liver of course!

 Another thing which is not on the LCHF menu is cake; even if it's a tits-n-ass cake..

..which of course Swedish husbands appreciate as morning snack if they couldn't join the party the night before. At least parts of it!

In addition to eating LCHF we started seriously exercising; on average we have been doing something (swimming, jogging or going to the gym) almost every day for about an hour. Again completely uninteresting probably, but in Asia you do have to have an extra think about this, since you can't just go out for a jog whenever (any time between 12-16 should be avoided), with whichever equipment (water, water and water is always good to bring). In addition, you can choose some interesting sites for the exercise. Like MacRitchie reservoir for instance. 

Map over the fresh water reservoir..

 ..where you don't want to wander off in areas you should not be wandering off into..

 ..nor stick your feet into the actual water without making sure there are no 1-m lizards lurking around

 It's also good to watch out for monkeys..

 ..especially if they are approaching you with speed with a fixated stare at your water bottle (you are not supposed to eat or drink in front of them though, which I of course forgot about)..

 ..or if they have long tails laying around your jogging path

If you do jogging around the MacRitchie reservoir, it'll be quite a round; hence halfway it might be nice to stick your feet in the water.. 

 ..or just chill out with some yoga..

 ..before heading back through the rain forest..

 ..passing by swamps with a lot of snakes.. and frogs.. and lizards.. and bats.. Or you can also just stick to the gym ;)

From February

The weekend started off with a power walk, which was supposed to be effective and short. Instead we came home after almost 3 hours, just walking in a different direction than usual, exploring our hood.

We ended up at our favorite Indian restaurant by Serangoon and accidentally ordered food for a small village.   

My husband however, decided to with his old military motto: 'I don't see the problem, just solve the task'.

 He did on the other hand have some slight issues with the tiger shrimp curry with chili. After he finished this, he looked like he'd made out with a pineapple. I'm again convinced we could actually solve any fuel crisis in the future with Indian food, since at least this dish could easily start a jet engine.  

 This is then one of the perks living in Singapore: there's so  much different culture with all kinds of temples/churches/mosques/shrines etc everywhere, you quite often bump into something new. Here was an absolutely gorgeous temple (we think) just opposite the road from Serangoon. I actually have no idea what it is, but sort of looks Malay, with all the quirky gold spirals ['guldtruddelutter' in my Swedish vocabulary btw ;)] here n there. The men inside weren't overly impressed by my eager trigger finger snapping shots at their crib, so I didn't dare take pics any closer.  

When we came home, we dived into the pool for a few lapses and then headed over to Jonas' colleague's BBQ party. And it was smashing! Unfortunately we had to leave quite early (but of course made it back for the after party) to secure our seats at the Chingay Parade by Singapore Flyer, which is the really outstanding New Lunar Year Parade.

 When we arrived to the BBQ, we were of course very proud to see that Indian/American couples also have learned that kiddy pools can further serve as excellent drink containers. I thought this was an exclusive Swedish invention.

 

 Happy BBQers!

 Well down at the Flyer, we ended up in a mermaid convention, where one of them 'ripped da tail la n am sure someone stolen my hair'..

 ..but we finally made it to our places..

 ..in time to see how the participants unleashed the huge air borne festival dragon!

 And there was no way you could've missed it's the year of the dragon..

 ..because they were..

 ..absolutely..

 ..and utterly..

 ..everywhere. It was very cool though and all the participants (several thousands I might add), were walking in a shallow canal, which made the whole show even more magical. 

 This was a fantasy rainbow creation (most of the wagons are supposed to represent ancient stories from the primarily Chinese culture), made totally out of balloons. It gave me flash backs from an after party in Jonkoping, Sweden, where we for some reason got a hold of a full bottle of He-gas, that we'd previously used for Valentine's balloons. I remember having cramps in my jaw and cheeks for almost a week after, from laughing so hard.

 Taiwanese dancers with really beautiful costumes in green and gold.

There were several luminescent ships holding all kinds of characters looking like pirates and what not.  

And of course the characteristic dragons were all over, getting closer..

..and closer..

..but we managed to keep our calm..

..and were out of there just in time for..

..the whole sky to light up by fire works..

 

..almost being Tokyo class. Almost ;)